COTI is not built on Cardano but it is one of the most tightly integrated external protocols in the Cardano ecosystem.
COTI began as a standalone Layer 1 protocol called Trustchain. With the evolution to COTI V2, it has now transitioned to a confidential computing Layer 2 on Ethereum, leveraging garbled circuits for privacy-focused smart contract execution. This new architecture does not involve Cardano as a base layer. Despite this, COTI and Cardano have had a long-standing strategic partnership. One of COTI’s most visible contributions is ADA Pay, a tool built for merchants to accept ADA payments with near-instant settlement. This solution gave Cardano a real-world payment rail powered by COTI’s original infrastructure.
The collaboration deepened when Input Output Global (IOG), Cardano’s core development entity, selected COTI to issue and manage Djed - Cardano’s official algorithmic stablecoin. Djed is an overcollateralized stablecoin launched on the Cardano network, but the smart contracts and issuance model are maintained by COTI. This makes COTI a vital piece of Cardano’s DeFi landscape, even though the two networks operate independently.
In short, COTI is not technically built on Cardano. It doesn’t use Cardano’s Plutus contracts or stake pools, and it’s not a native Cardano asset. But it does bridge into the Cardano ecosystem by providing mission-critical services particularly in payments and stablecoin infrastructure.
With COTI V2 now being Ethereum-native, the collaboration may evolve further through interoperability layers. What’s clear is that COTI is a trusted external partner, not an internal protocol.
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